Brooks blows away Bell’s Warwickshire

YORKSHIRE signed off from Championship duties to send a powerful warning to other counties with a comprehensive innings victory over Warwickshire at Headingley inside three days.

Their innings and 155 runs triumph enabled Yorkshire to leapfrog over their opponents to the top of division one as they sign off from championship cricket to tackle the next hurdle in their attempt to challenge for more than one trophy this season with the start of the NatWest Blast Twenty20 competition on Friday.

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They wasted little time in securing an extra day off before that opening match against Northamptonshire by ruthlessly destroying Warwickshire, who arrived at Headingley as championship leaders having won their two previous matches.

Resuming the third morning on 136 for six and trailing by 308 runs, Warwickshire were dismissed for 200 and, after being asked to follow on, were all out for only 89 after losing five wickets for ten runs in 25 balls against the new ball.

Warwickshire’s chief tormentor was Jack Brooks, just one member of Yorkshire’s multi-talented attack, who claimed seven wickets in the match and is now convinced this squad is capable of challenging on a number of fronts this summer.

“I would like to think with this squad we could compete for more than one trophy,” he said. “It’s been such a long time since one team bossed all three competitions – probably Warwickshire in the 1990s – so it’s quite difficult in the modern game to do that, but this squad is capable of doing that.”

It soon became clear that Yorkshire’s hopes of forcing through victory with a day to spare would depend on their ability to dismiss Warwickshire captain Ian Bell, who had held their first innings together with an unbeaten 58 overnight.

He progressed to within only three of his century, but wickets continued to fall at the other end and when he edged Brooks behind down the leg-side, Warwickshire’s fate in following on was sealed.

They fared little better second time around and were blown away by Brooks and Tim Bresnan with the new ball, with Bell falling amid the early carnage that left Warwickshire on 31 for five.

Warwickshire briefly halted their capitulation but Steve Patterson returned to the attack to claim two wickets in an over, halting a promising 49-run sixth wicket stand by bowling Tim Ambrose and then having Keith Barker caught behind. Bad light and rain delayed play for two hours with Warwickshire on the brink at 84 for seven, but Yorkshire lost no time when play resumed in bright sunshine and only nine overs left of the day’s allocation.

They needed just 20 balls to end Warwickshire’s resistance with Brooks having Jeetan Patel expertly caught in the slip cordon by Adam Lyth to move Yorkshire closer to their victory target.

Fittingly Plunkett, outstanding throughout and surprisingly overlooked by England for their one-day series against Sri Lanka, finished the game off with wickets off successive balls and return Yorkshire back to the summit.

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